i am lucky in that i have four avalonia land conservancy properties and a nature conservancy property that i can walk to from my house. today i decided to visit erisman woods, babcock ridge, and the henne preserve all in a row. erisman and babcock share a border and a trail, and henne is just across the road from babcock. of course, this also involves a considerable amount of road walking, and especially on the roads i travel, this is the scariest part—no sidewalks, virtually no shoulders, and blind curves. i survived, though i don’t think i’ll be repeating this walk again too soon.

road lilies

the nice part of walking the roads is my neighbors’ gardens. these cheerful orange lilies always make me smile.

mystery mushrooms

i have no idea what these are—i’ve never seen them before. they look like the usual shelf fungus you find on dead logs except that these are round. any i.d. help would be appreciated!

herons on henne

looks like the great blue herons on the henne preserve that my friend bruce has been documenting on his blog are about ready to fledge. if you’re not reading bruce’s blog, you really need to. for one thing, his camera equipment is sooo much better than mine, not to mention his eye—the blog is chock full of stunning photography.

Rhexia virginica, a.k.a. handsome harry

and it is indeed a handsome plant. with four petals and eight stamens, it’s hard to miss, too.

geese on the shunock river

there’s a little red-blazed side trail on henne that takes you to the bank of the shunock river (or brook; it’s designated as both depending on who you ask). i had just gotten there when this extended canada goose family came swimming by. it’s hard to see (danged iphone camera), but there are 5 adults with 2 babies. the adults are completely surrounding the babies.

covered bridge

once you come off the henne preserve you’re in a sort of failed development called shunock river estates. it consists of a few houses, lots of empty house lots, and this, north stonington’s only covered bridge.